Israel is a republic with a President as head of state. However, the President's powers are largely ceremonial; the Prime Minister the real power. The official residence of the Prime Minister, Beit Aghion is in Jerusalem. The current Prime Minister is Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, the ninth person to hold the position (excluding caretakers).

Following an election, the President nominates a member of the Knesset to become Prime Minister after asking party leaders whom they support for the position. The nominee has 42 days to put together a viable coalition. He then presents a government platform and must receive a vote of confidence from the Knesset in order to become Prime Minister. In practice, the Prime Minister is usually the leader of the largest party in the governing coalition. Between 1996 and 2001, the Prime Minister was directly elected, separately from the Knesset.[2]

Unlike most prime ministers in parliamentary republics, the Prime Minister is both de jure and de facto chief executive. This is because the Basic Laws of Israel explicitly vest executive power in the government, of which the Prime Minister is the leader.

History

The office of Prime Minister came into existence on 14 May 1948, the date of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, when the provisional government was created. David Ben-Gurion, leader of Mapai and head of the Jewish Agency became Israel's first Prime Minister. The position became permanent on 8 March 1949, when the first government was formed. Ben-Gurion retained his role until late 1953, when he resigned in order to settle in the Kibbutz of Sde Boker. He was replaced by Moshe Sharett. However, Ben-Gurion returned in a little under two years to reclaim his position. He resigned for a second time in 1963, breaking away from Mapai to form Rafi. Levi Eshkol took over as head of Mapai and prime minister. He became the first Prime Minister to head the country under the banner of two parties when Mapai formed the Alignment with Ahdut HaAvoda in 1965. In 1968 he also became the only party leader to command an absolute majority in the Knesset, after Mapam and Rafi merged into the Alignment, giving it 63 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.

On 26 February 1969, Eshkol became the first Prime Minister to die in office, and was temporarily replaced by Yigal Allon. However, Allon's stint lasted less than a month, as the party persuaded Golda Meir to return to political life and become prime minister in March 1969. Meir was Israel's first woman prime minister, and the third in the world (after Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Indira Gandhi).

After the 1984 elections had proved inconclusive with neither the Alignment nor Likud able to form a government, a national unity government was formed with a rotating prime ministership – Shimon Peres took the first two years, and was replaced by Shamir midway through the Knesset term.

Although the 1988 elections produced another national unity government, Shamir was able to take the role alone. Peres made an abortive bid to form a left-wing government in 1990, but failed, leaving Shamir in power until 1992.

Rabin became prime minister for the second time when he led Labour to victory in the 1992 elections. After his assassination on 4 November 1995, Peres took over as prime minister.

During the thirteenth Knesset (1992–1996) it was decided to hold a separate ballot for prime minister modeled after American presidential elections. This system was instituted in part because the Israeli electoral system makes it all but impossible for one party to win a majority. While only two parties—Mapai/Labour and Likud—had ever led governments, the large number of parties or factions in a typical Knesset usually prevents one party from winning the 61 seats needed for a majority.

In 1996, when the first such election took place, the outcome was a surprise win for Benjamin Netanyahu after election polls predicted that Peres was the winner.[3] However, in the Knesset election held at the same time, Labour won more votes than any other party (27%). Thus Netanyahu, despite his theoretical position of power, needed the support of the religious parties to form a viable government.

Ultimately Netanyahu failed to hold the government together, and early elections for both prime minister and the Knesset were called in 1999. Although five candidates announced their intention to run, the three representing minor parties (Benny Begin of Herut – The National Movement, Azmi Bishara of Balad and Yitzhak Mordechai of the Centre Party) dropped out before election day, and Ehud Barak beat Netanyahu in the election. However, the new system again appeared to have failed; although Barak's One Israel alliance (an alliance of Labour, Gesher and Meimad) won more votes than any other party in the Knesset election, they garnered only 26 seats, the lowest ever by a winning party or alliance. Barak needed to form a coalition with six smaller parties in order to form a government.

In early 2001, Barak resigned following the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada. However, the government was not brought down, and only elections for prime minister were necessary. In the election itself, Ariel Sharon comfortably beat Barak, taking 62.4% of the vote. However, because Likud only had 21 seats in the Knesset, Sharon had to form a national unity government. Following Sharon's victory, it was decided to do away with separate elections for prime minister and return to the previous system.

2003 onwards

The 2003 elections were carried out in the same manner as prior to 1996. Likud won 38 seats, the highest by a party for over a decade, and as party leader Sharon was duly appointed PM. However, towards the end of his term and largely as a result of the deep divisions within Likud over Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, Sharon broke away from his party to form Kadima, managing to maintain his position as prime minister and also becoming the first prime minister not to be a member of either Labour or Likud (or their predecessors). However, he suffered a stroke in January 2006, in the midst of election season, leading Ehud Olmert to become acting prime minister in the weeks leading to the elections. He was voted by the cabinet to be interim prime minister just after the 2006 elections, when Sharon had reached 100 days of incapacitation. He thus became Israel's third interim prime minister, only days before forming his own new government as the official Prime Minister of Israel.

In 2008, amid accusations of corruption and challenges from his own party, Olmert announced that he would resign. However his successor Tzipi Livni was unable to form a coalition government. In the election in the following year, while Kadima won the most seats, it was the Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu who was given the task of forming a government. He was able to do so, thus beginning his second term as Prime Minister of Israel.

According to Israeli law, if a prime minister is temporarily incapacitated rather than dies (as was the case following Ariel Sharon's stroke in early 2006), power is transferred to the acting prime minister, until the prime minister recovers (Ehud Olmert took over from Sharon), for up to 100 days. If the prime minister is declared permanently incapacitated, or that period expires, the President of Israel oversees the process of assembling a new governing coalition, and in the meantime the acting prime minister or other incumbent minister is appointed by the cabinet to serve as interim prime minister.

In the case of Sharon, elections were already due to occur within 100 days of the beginning of his coma; thus, the post-election coalition-building process pre-empted the emergency provisions for the selection of a new prime minister. Nevertheless, Olmert was appointed interim prime minister on 16 April 2006, after the elections, just days before he had formed a government on 4 May 2006, to become the official prime minister.

Interim government

Prime Minister's residence

During his term of office, the prime minister lives in Jerusalem. Since 1974, the official residence of the prime minister is Beit Aghion, at the corner of Balfour and Smolenskin streets in Rehavia.[5]

Term of office in years

List of Prime Ministers by longevity

Living former Prime Ministers

As of March 2017, there are two living former Prime Ministers. The most recent Prime Minister to die was Shimon Peres (1977; 1984–1986; 1995–1996), who died on 28 September 2016. Benjamin Netanyahu, who served as Prime Minister from 1996 to 1999, is currently serving and is thus excluded from this list.

1.
Benjamin Netanyahu
–
Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. Netanyahu also currently serves as a member of the Knesset and Chairman of the Likud party, born in Tel Aviv to secular Jewish parents, Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister born in Israel after the establishment of the state. Netanyahu joined the Israel Defense Forces shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967, Netanyahu took part in many missions, including Operation Inferno, Operation Gift and Operation Isotope, during which he was shot in the shoulder. Netanyahu achieved the rank of captain before being discharged, after graduating from MIT with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees, Netanyahu was recruited as an economic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. Netanyahu returned to Israel in 1978 to found the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute, named after his brother Yonatan Netanyahu, Netanyahu served as the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1988. Netanyahu became the leader of Likud in 1993, Netanyahu won the 1996 elections, becoming Israels youngest ever Prime Minister, serving his first term from June 1996 to July 1999. Netanyahu moved from the arena to the private sector after being defeated in the 1999 election for prime minister by Ehud Barak. As Minister of Finance, Netanyahu engaged in a reform of the Israeli economy. Netanyahu retook the Likud leadership in December 2005, after Sharon left to form a new party, in December 2006, Netanyahu became the official Leader of the Opposition in the Knesset and Chairman of Likud. Following the 2009 parliamentary election, in which Likud placed second and right-wing parties won a majority, after the victory in the 2013 elections, he became the second person to be elected to the position of Prime Minister for a third term, after Israels founder David Ben-Gurion. In March 2015, Netanyahu was elected to his term as prime minister. Netanyahu has been elected Prime Minister of Israel four times, matching David Ben-Gurions record, Netanyahu is the only prime minister in Israels history to have been elected three times in a row. Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv, Israel, to an Israeli mother, Tzila Segal and a Warsaw-born father, Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, Netanyahu is of mixed Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewish heritage. He was initially raised and educated in Jerusalem, where he attended Henrietta Szold Elementary School, to this day, he speaks fluent English, with a noticeable Philadelphia accent. After graduating from school in 1967, Netanyahu returned to Israel to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. He trained as a soldier and served for five years in an elite special forces unit of the IDF. He took part in numerous cross-border assault raids during the 1967–70 War of Attrition and he was wounded in combat on multiple occasions. He was involved in other missions, including Operation Inferno

2.
Prime Minister's Office (Israel)
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In addition, it is in charge of other governmental bodies, which are directly under the Prime Minister responsibilities. Atomic Energy Commission – responsible for the activities of Israel. Mossad – The Israeli intelligence body, shin Bet – internal security service of Israel. National Economic Council – Economic counseling to the Prime Minister of Israel, government Appellation Committee – determines the Hebrew names for the Israeli geographical places, and its decisions are binding for all state institutions. Lapam – – A unit within the Prime Ministers office serving as an agency for all governmental ministry offices. Laam – – A unit within the Prime Ministers office responsible for handing Journalist diploma for Israeli mass media workers, in addition, it is in charge of coordinating between the Cabinet of Israel and the foreign Journalists community staying in Israel on media activities matters. Israel State Archive – National Authority for Religious Services, Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel – A unit within the Prime Ministers office responsible for Pensioners, elders and the Holocaust survivors. Currently, The Prime Minister himself, Benjamin Netanyahu is the Minister for Pensioner Affairs, beit Aghion Minister in the Prime Ministers Office Prime Minister of Israel Official website

3.
Official residence
–
An official residence is the residence at which a nations head of state, head of government, governor or other senior figure officially resides. It may or may not be the location where the individual conducts work-related functions or lives. This has occurred in the 21st century in Detroit and New York City, in the case of Denver, no mayor has ever lived in the official residence, the city instead makes it available to certain non-profit groups for special functions. The President uses own private residence, - Its address is 1 Cheongwadae-ro, Jongro-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea. It is located next to Gyeongbokgung, the palace during the Joseon Dynasty. Cheong Nam Dae - Cheong Nam Dae used to be one of the two residences for the President of Republic of Korea. It was returned to public in 2003, - It is located in Cheongwon-gun, North Chungcheong Province. Cheong Hae Dae - Cheong Hae Dae used to be one of the two residences for the President of Republic of Korea. Although the president no longer uses this facility this compound is still under the administration of the Republic of Korea Navy, - It is located on one of the islands of Geoje-shi, South Gyeongsang Province. Chongri Gonggwan - This is the residence for the Prime Minister of Republic of Korea. The Prime Minister, however, does not work here, - Its address is 111-2 Samcheongdong-gil, Jongro-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea. It is located close to Cheong Wa Dae, gukhoeuijang Gonggwan - This is the official residence for the Speaker of the National Assembly of Republic of Korea. The Speaker, also, does not work here, - It is located in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, where many foreign missions to Korea are located. Daebeobwonjang Gonggwan - This is the residence for the Chief Justice of Republic of Korea. The Chief Justice, also, does not work here, - It is also located in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Most ministers of state and heads of administrative regions also have official residences, although they are not listed here. S

4.
Beit Aghion
–
Beit Aghion, also known as Beit Rosh HaMemshala is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Israel. It is located at 9 Smolenskin Street, on the corner of Balfour Street in the upscale Jerusalem neighborhood of Rehavia. The building was built for the Jewish-Greek merchant, Edward Aghion and it was designed by the Jewish-German architect, Richard Kauffmann, and was built between 1936–1938. In 1941, Peter II, King of Yugoslavia resided in the house, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War it served as a hospital for the Irgun fighters. In 1952, the Israeli government purchased the house for the purpose of turning it to a residence for the Foreign Minister. During the 1990s, a wall was erected around the house for security reasons, the building is composed of several of square blocks connected to one another, and in the center of the building there is a stairway, decorated with a row of windows in the front. The front of the building includes a section molded in a circular way. The building is coated with Jerusalem stone, the patio was most probably added originally due to the Aghion familys request. The cost of that project was around 650 million shekels. On 5 April the decision to move the residence of the Prime Minister of Israel was canceled. In 2014, the plans to relocate the official residence to be close to the ministers office were approved by ministers. Prime Minister of Israel Office of the Prime Minister Beit HaNassi Ben Gurion House

5.
Knesset
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The Knesset is the unicameral national legislature of Israel. As the legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister, approves the cabinet, in addition, the Knesset elects the State Comptroller. The Prime Minister may also dissolve the Knesset, however, until an election is completed, the Knesset maintains authority in its current composition. The Knesset is located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem, as the legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the president, approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government through its committees. It also has the power to waive the immunity of its members, remove the President and the State Comptroller from office, the Knesset is presided over by a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker. The Knesset is divided into committees, which amend bills on the appropriate subjects, Committee chairpersons are chosen by their members, on recommendation of the House Committee, and their factional composition represents that of the Knesset itself. Committees may elect sub-committees and delegate powers to them, or establish joint committees for issues concerning more than one committee, to further their deliberations, they invite government ministers, senior officials, and experts in the matter being discussed. There are four types of committees in the Knesset, permanent committees amend proposed legislation dealing with their area of expertise, and may initiate legislation. However, such legislation may only deal with Basic Laws and laws dealing with the Knesset, elections to the Knesset, Knesset members, or the State Comptroller. Special committees function in a manner to permanent committees, but are appointed to deal with particular manners at hand. Parliamentary inquiry committees are appointed by the plenum to deal with issues viewed as having national importance. The Ethics Committee is responsible for jurisdiction over Knesset members who violate the rules of ethics of the Knesset, within the framework of responsibility, the Ethics Committee may place various sanctions on a member, but is not allowed to restrict a members right to vote. The Knesset numbers 120 members, a subject which has often been a cause for proposed reforms and this proposed law has also been favoured by other politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu. The 120 members of the Knesset are popularly elected from a single electoral district to concurrent four-year terms. All Israeli citizens 18 years or older may vote in legislative elections, Knesset seats are allocated among the various parties using the DHondt method of party list proportional representation. A party or electoral alliance must pass the threshold of 3. 25% of the overall vote to be allocated a Knesset seat. Parties select their candidates using a closed list, thus, voters select the party of their choice, not any specific candidate. The electoral threshold was set at 1% from 1949 to 1992, then 1. 5% from 1992 to 2003

6.
President of Israel
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The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely a figurehead role, with executive power effectively being exercised by the prime minister. The current president is Reuven Rivlin, who took office on 24 July 2014, presidents are elected by the Knesset for a seven-year term and are limited to a single term. The president is elected by an majority in the Knesset. If no candidate has received a majority of votes by the first round of voting. When electing the president, Knesset members vote by secret ballot, the president is elected to a term of seven years, and cannot be re-elected. Until 2000, the president was elected for a five-year term, any Israeli citizen who is a resident of the State is eligible to run for president. The office falls vacant upon completion of a term, resignation, presidential tenure is not keyed to that of the Knesset in order to assure continuity in government and the nonpartisan character of the office. There is no vice president in the Israeli governmental system, if the president is temporarily incapacitated or leaves office, the speaker of the Knesset becomes acting president. The first presidential election took place on 16 February 1949, the second took place in 1951, as at the time presidential terms were linked to the length of the Knesset term. Another election took place the year after Weizmanns death. Since then, elections have been held in 1957,1962,1963,1968,1973,1978,1983,1988,1993,1998,2000,2007 and 2014, six elections have taken place with no opposition candidate, although a vote was still held. The Basic Law, The Government also includes sections on the powers of the president with reference to the government, the president signs every law and international or bilateral treaties approved by the Knesset. Presidential powers are usually exercised based on the recommendation of appropriate government ministers, the presidents most important role, in practice, is to help lead the process of forming a government. The president awards the Israel Prize on Yom Haatzmaut and the Wolf Prize, the president also serves as the main speaker at the opening ceremonies of the half-yearly Knesset conference, as well as at the annual official ceremonies for Yom Hazikaron and Yom HaShoah. Most Israeli presidents were involved in politics or Zionist activities before taking office. The first Israeli presidents were born in the former Russian Empire, the first native-born president, as well as the first with a Sephardi background, was Yitzhak Navon. The first president with a Western European background was Chaim Herzog, the first president with a Mizrahi background was Moshe Katsav, who was born in Iran

7.
Term of office
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A term of office is the length of time a person serves in a particular elected office. In many jurisdictions there is a limit on how long terms of office may be before the officeholder must be subject to re-election. Some jurisdictions exercise term limits, setting a number of terms an individual may hold in a particular office. Being the origin of the Westminster system, aspects of the United Kingdoms system of government are replicated in other countries. The monarch serves as head of state until his or her death or abdication, in the United Kingdom Members of Parliament in the House of Commons are elected for the duration of the parliament. Following dissolution of the Parliament, an election is held which consists of simultaneous elections for all seats. For most MPs this means that their terms of office are identical to the duration of the Parliament, an MP elected in a by-election mid-way through a Parliament, regardless of how long they have occupied the seat, is not exempt from facing re-election at the next general election. The Septennial Act 1715 provided that a Parliament expired seven years after it had been summoned, prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 parliaments had no minimum duration. Parliaments could be dissolved early by the monarch at the Prime Ministers request, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 mandated that Parliaments should last their full five years. Early dissolution is possible, but under much more limited circumstances. Hereditary peers and life peers retain membership of the House of Lords for life, Lords Spiritual hold membership of the House of Lords until the end of their time as bishops, though a senior bishop may be made a life peer upon the end of their bishopric. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are variations on the system of government used at Westminster, the office of the leader of the devolved administrations has no numeric term limit imposed upon it. However, in the case of the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government there are fixed terms for which the legislatures can sit and this is imposed at four years. Elections may be held before this time but only if no administration can be formed, offices of local government other regional elected officials follow similar rules to the national offices discussed above, with persons elected to fixed terms of a few years. Federal judges have different terms in office, however, the majority of the federal judiciary, Article III judges, such as those of the Supreme Court, courts of appeal, and federal district courts, serve for life. The terms of office for officials in state governments according to the provisions of state constitutions. The term for state governors is four years in all states but Vermont and New Hampshire, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported in January 2007 that among state legislatures,44 states had terms of office for the lower house of the state legislature at two years. Five had terms of office at four years,37 states had terms of office for the upper house of the state legislature at four years

8.
David Ben-Gurion
–
David Ben-Gurion was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurions passion for Zionism, which early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader. On 14 May 1948, he proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces, subsequently, he became known as Israels founding father. Following the war, Ben-Gurion served as Israels first Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, as Prime Minister, he helped build the state institutions, presiding over various national projects aimed at the development of the country. He also oversaw the absorption of vast numbers of Jews from all over the world, a centerpiece of his foreign policy was improving relationships with the West Germans. He worked very well with Konrad Adenauers government in Bonn, in 1954 he resigned as both Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, although he remained a member of the Knesset. However, he returned as Minister of Defense in 1955 after the Lavon Affair resulted in the resignation of Pinhas Lavon, later in the year he became Prime Minister again, following the 1955 elections. He stepped down from office in 1963, and retired from life in 1970. He then moved to Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev desert, posthumously, Ben-Gurion was named one of Time magazines 100 Most Important People of the 20th century. David Ben-Gurion was born in Płońsk in Congress Poland – then part of the Russian Empire and his father, Avigdor Grün, was a lawyer and a leader in the Hovevei Zion movement. His mother, Scheindel, died when he was 11 years old, Ben-Gurions birth certificate, when rediscovered in Poland in 2003, indicated that he had a twin brother who died shortly after birth. At the age of 14 he and two formed a youth club, Ezra, promoting Hebrew studies and emigration to the Holy Land. In 1905, as a student at the University of Warsaw and he was arrested twice during the Russian Revolution of 1905. Ben-Gurion discussed his hometown in his memoirs, saying, For many of us, I personally never suffered anti-Semitic persecution. Płońsk was remarkably free of it, nevertheless, and I think this very significant, it was Płońsk that sent the highest proportion of Jews to Eretz Israel from any town in Poland of comparable size. We emigrated not for reasons of escape but for the positive purpose of rebuilding a homeland. Life in Płońsk was peaceful enough, there were three main communities, Russians, Jews and Poles

9.
Deputy leaders of Israel
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Deputy leaders in Israel fall into three categories, Acting Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and Vice Prime Minister. Deputy Prime Minister and Vice Prime Minister are honorary rather than official executive positions, Acting Prime Ministers take the place of the Prime Minister if he or she is temporarily incapacitated, while the incumbent is still in office. If the Prime Minister is removed by impeachment, dies, or becomes permanently incapacitated, the designated Acting Prime Minister takes the role of Prime Minister as Acting Prime Minister, for up to 100 consecutive days, if the incumbent is temporarily incapacitated. The incumbent minister must be also a Knesset member to be eligible for this role, in the recently installed government of Benjamin Netanyahu, there is no designated Acting Prime Minister. There can be one designated minister appointed to such position. However, the holder of this position can hold other ministerial position, as the most recent designated Acting Prime Minister. Confusingly, the term is referred to as Vice Prime Minister, though a separate. If the Prime Minister is abroad, the designated minister summons the government to cabinet meetings, if there is no such designated minister, in such event, the government will vote for one. If the Prime Minister wants to replace the designated Acting Prime Minister, he needs the approval vote of the government. However, the Prime Minister may fire the designated Acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, after standing-in for Prime Minister Sharon for 100 consecutive days, as acting Prime Minister, did not automatically assume office as an Interim Prime Minister. The deal was continued into the 12th Knesset, but collapsed in 1990, the role of the designated Acting Prime Minister was limited and unattractive for any chairman of major party aspiring to get the top job. The position was resurrected in 2003, with Ariel Sharon appointing Ehud Olmert to the post, Tzipi Livni then was appointed to the post, in Olmerts Government. One of the Ministers who is a member of Knesset may be designated as Acting Prime Minister, should the Prime Minister be absent from Israel, meetings of the Government will be convened and conducted by the designated Acting Prime Minister. Should the Prime Minister be temporarily unable to discharge his duties, after the passage of 100 days upon which the Prime Minister does not resume his duties, the Prime Minister will be deemed permanently unable to exercise his office. Should the Prime Minister be permanently incapacitated, the Government shall be deemed to have resigned on the 101st day during which the Acting Prime Minister served in his place. The interim prime minister is appointed by the government if the incumbent is dead or permanently incapacitated, while the acting prime minister must be a Knesset member to meet the requirements, the interim prime minister must be a member of the prime ministers party as well. Until the 2001 basic law, the government, both the acting and interim prime ministers were required to be a Knesset member in addition to being a member of the Government. In 2006, Ehud Olmert, after standing in for Prime Minister Sharon for 100 consecutive days, as acting prime minister, did not automatically assume office as an interim prime minister

10.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it

11.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested

12.
Head of government
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The term head of government is often differentiated from the term head of state, as they may be separate positions, individuals, and/or roles depending on the country. In parliamentary systems, including constitutional monarchies, the head of government is the de facto leader of the government. For example, in the United Kingdom, the prime minister advises the Queen on the appointment of the cabinet, advice she is required to accept. On the other hand, the Queens long service as the head of state enables her to provide the prime minister with information and insight into many matters to better run the government. However, because the United Kingdom is a monarchy, the Prime Minister uses his or her own discretion regarding whether or not to follow the Queens advice. The Queen also is entitled to appoint a new Prime Minister, in presidential republics or in absolute monarchies, the head of state is also usually the head of government. The relationship between that leader and the government, however, can vary greatly, ranging from separation of powers to autocracy, in semi-presidential systems, the head of government may answer to both the head of state and the legislature, with the specifics provided by each countrys constitution. A modern example is the present French government, which originated as the French Fifth Republic in 1958, in France, the president, the head of state, appoints the prime minister, who is the head of government. In some cases, the head of state may represent one political party, in this case, known as cohabitation, the prime minister, along with the cabinet, controls domestic policy, with the presidents influence is largely restricted to foreign affairs. In directorial systems, the executive responsibilities of the head of government are spread among a group of people, a prominent example is the Swiss Federal Council, where each member of the council heads a department and also votes on proposals relating to all departments. A common title for many heads of government is prime minister, various constitutions use different titles, and even the same title can have various multiple meanings, depending on the constitutional order and political system of the state in question. In addition to prime minister, titles used for the democratic model, some of these titles relate to governments below the national level. Have been used by various Empires, Kingdoms and Princely States of India as a title for the Prime Minister, maltese, In Malta, the head of government is Prim Ministru. In this case, the prime minister serves at the pleasure of the monarch, some such titles are diwan, mahamantri, pradhan, wasir or vizier. However, just because the head of state is the de jure dominant position does not mean that he/she will not always be the de facto political leader, in some cases, the head of state is a figurehead whilst the head of the government leads the ruling party. In some cases a head of government may even pass on the title in hereditary fashion, the ability to vote down legislative proposals of the government. Control over or ability to vote down fiscal measures and the budget, all of these requirements directly impact the Head of governments role. Many parliamentary systems require ministers to serve in parliament, while others ban ministers from sitting in parliament, heads of government are typically removed from power in a parliamentary system by Resignation, following, Defeat in a general election

13.
Cabinet of Israel
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The Government of Israel exercises executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of ministers who are chosen and led by the prime minister, the composition of the government must be approved by a vote of confidence in the Knesset. Under Israeli law, the minister may dismiss members of the government, but must do so in writing. Most ministers lead ministries, though some are ministers without portfolio, most ministers are members of the Knesset, though only the Prime Minister and the designated acting prime minister are required to be Knesset members. Some ministers are also called deputy and vice prime ministers, unlike the designated acting prime minister, these roles have no statutory meanings. The government operates in accordance with the Basic Law and it meets on Sundays weekly in Jerusalem. There may be additional meetings if circumstances require it, the prime minister convenes these meetings. The body discussed in this article is referred to in Israeli official documents as the Government of Israel and this is in accordance to the normal translation of its Hebrew name. Another term in use is the Kitchen Cabinet, a collection of senior officials and it was formed as the Peoples Administration on 12 April 1948, in preparation for independence just over a month later. All its thirteen members were taken from Moetzet HaAm, the legislative body set up at the same time. This government has 21 ministers and seven deputy ministers, deri resigned his post as economy minister reportedly in protest of a gas monopoly deal. Netanyahu took the portfolio himself and promised to speed up the deal, Basic Law, The Government List of female cabinet ministers of Israel Current and past cabinets—Knesset website Basic Law, The Government —Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs

14.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam

15.
Head of state
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A head of state is the public persona that officially represents the national unity and legitimacy of a sovereign state. In some countries, the head of state is a figurehead with limited or no executive power, while in others. Former French president Charles de Gaulle, while developing the current Constitution of France, some academic writers discuss states and governments in terms of models. An independent nation state normally has a head of state, the non-executive model, in which the head of state has either none or very limited executive powers, and mainly has a ceremonial and symbolic role. In parliamentary systems the head of state may be merely the chief executive officer, heading the executive branch of the state. This accountability and legitimacy requires that someone be chosen who has a majority support in the legislature and it also gives the legislature the right to vote down the head of government and their cabinet, forcing it either to resign or seek a parliamentary dissolution. In parliamentary constitutional monarchies, the legitimacy of the head of state typically derives from the tacit approval of the people via the elected representatives. In reality, numerous variants exist to the position of a head of state within a parliamentary system, usually, the king had the power of declaring war without previous consent of the parliament. For example, under the 1848 constitution of the Kingdom of Italy, the Statuto Albertino—the parliamentary approval to the government appointed by the king—was customary, so, Italy had a de facto parliamentarian system, but a de jure presidential system. These officials are excluded completely from the executive, they do not possess even theoretical executive powers or any role, even formal, hence their states governments are not referred to by the traditional parliamentary model head of state styles of His/Her Majestys Government or His/Her Excellencys Government. Within this general category, variants in terms of powers and functions may exist, the constitution explicitly vests all executive power in the Cabinet, who is chaired by the prime minister and responsible to the Diet. The emperor is defined in the constitution as the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people and he is a ceremonial figurehead with no independent discretionary powers related to the governance of Japan. Today, the Speaker of the Riksdag appoints the prime minister, Cabinet members are appointed and dismissed at the sole discretion of the prime minister. In contrast, the contact the President of Ireland has with the Irish government is through a formal briefing session given by the taoiseach to the president. However, he or she has no access to documentation and all access to ministers goes through the Department of the Taoiseach. The president does, however, hold limited reserve powers, such as referring a bill to the court to test its constitutionality. The most extreme non-executive republican Head of State is the President of Israel, semi-presidential systems combine features of presidential and parliamentary systems, notably a requirement that the government be answerable to both the president and the legislature. The constitution of the Fifth French Republic provides for a minister who is chosen by the president

16.
Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem

17.
Likud
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The Likud, officially the Likud–National Liberal Movement, is a major center-right to right-wing political party in Israel. A secular party, it was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing, Likuds landslide victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the countrys political history, marking the first time the left had lost power. In addition, it was the first time in Israel that a party won the plurality of the votes. However, after ruling the country for most of the 1980s, nevertheless, Likuds candidate Benjamin Netanyahu did win the vote for Prime Minister in 1996 and was given the task of forming a government after the 1996 elections. Netanyahus government fell apart after a vote of no confidence, which led to elections being called in 1999, in 2001, Likuds Ariel Sharon, who replaced Netanyahu following the 1999 election, defeated Barak in an election called by the Prime Minister following his resignation. After the party recorded a win in the 2003 elections. This resulted in Likud slumping to fourth place in the 2006 elections, Netanyahu has been Prime Minister since and Likud has been the leading vote-getter in each election. A member of the party is called a Likudnik. Herut had been the nations largest right-wing party since growing out of the Irgun in 1948 and it had already been in coalition with the Liberals since 1965 as Gahal, with Herut as the senior partner. Herut remained the senior partner in the new grouping, which was given the name Likud, meaning Consolidation and it worked as a coalition under Heruts leadership until 1988, when the member parties merged into a single party under the Likud name. From its establishment in 1973, Likud enjoyed great support from blue-collar Sephardim who felt discriminated against by the ruling Alignment, Likud made a strong showing in its first elections in 1973, reducing the Alignments lead to 12 seats. The party went on to win the 1977 elections, finishing 11 seats ahead of the Alignment, Begin was able to form a government with the support of the religious parties, consigning the left-wing to opposition for the first time since independence. A former leader of the hard-line paramilitary Irgun, Begin helped initiate the process with Egypt, which resulted in the 1978 Camp David Accords. Likud was reelected with a reduced mandate in 1981. Likud has long been an alliance between politicians committed to different and sometimes opposing policy preferences and ideologies. Begin resigned in October 1983 and was succeeded as Likud leader, although Shamir lost the 1984 election, the Alignment was unable to form a government on its own. Likud and the Alignment thus formed a unity government, with Peres as Prime Minister. After two years, Peres and Shamir switched posts and this government remained in power through 1990, when the Alignment pulled out and Shamir stitched together a right-wing coalition that held on until its defeat in 1992 by Labor

18.
Basic Laws of Israel
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The Basic Laws of Israel are the constitutional laws of the State of Israel. These laws deal with the formation and role of the institutions of the state. They also protect rights, although some of these rights were earlier protected at common law by the Supreme Court of Israel. The Basic Laws are intended to be chapters of the future Israeli constitution. The Basic Laws do not cover all constitutional issues, and there is no deadline set for the completion of the process of merging them into one comprehensive constitution. There is no clear rule determining the precedence of Basic Rules over regular legislation, Israels declaration of independence stated that a formal constitution will be formulated and adopted no later than 1 October 1948. The deadline stated in the declaration of independence proved unrealistic in light of the war between the new state and its Arab neighbors, general elections were arranged on 25 January 1949, in order to elect the Constituent Assembly which would approve the new states constitution. The Constituent Assembly convened on February 1949 and it held several discussions about the constitution without reaching an agreement. For a number of reasons, Israels first prime-minister, David Ben-Gurion, because the Constituent Assembly did not prepare a constitution for Israel, the Knesset is the heir of the Assembly for the purpose of fulfilling this function. In 1950, the first Knesset came to what was called the Harari Decision, rather than draft a full constitution immediately, they would postpone the work, charging the Knessets Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee with drafting the document piecemeal. Each chapter would be called a Basic Law, and when all had written they would be compiled into a complete constitution. In 1992, Aharon Barak, President of the Supreme Court, declared a constitutional revolution, the Basic Laws are various pieces of legislation from the Knesset that outline the nations political structure. Between 1958 and 1988 the Knesset passed nine Basic Laws, all of which pertained to the institutions of state, in 1992, it passed the first two Basic Laws that related to human rights and the basis of the Supreme Courts recently declared powers of judicial review. These are Basic Law, Human Dignity and Liberty and these were passed by votes of 32–21 and 23–0, respectively. Israeli nationality law Land and Property laws in Israel Law of Israel Law of Return Moshe Koppel Cohen, Asher, Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity, The Secular-Religious Impasse. Jacobsohn, Gary J. Apple of Gold, Constitutionalism in Israel, mazie, Steven V. Israels Higher Law, Religion and Liberal Democracy in the Jewish State. The Existing Basic Laws, Full Texts, the Knesset website, official translations - NOTE, The 1968 Basic Law, the Government translation is missing provisions, probably amendments added later on. As opposed to the 1968 and 2001 basic Law, the Government translations, the 1992 Basic Law, the 2001 Law, which is in effect, present all provision in the translation, however, there are some lines missing

19.
Israeli Declaration of Independence
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It declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, which would come into effect on termination of the British Mandate at midnight that day. The event is celebrated annually in Israel with a national holiday Yom Haatzmaut on 5 Iyar of every year according to the Hebrew calendar, the possibility of a Jewish homeland in Palestine had been a goal of Zionist organizations since the late 19th century. After World War I, the United Kingdom was given a mandate for Palestine, in the face of increasing violence after World War II, the British handed the issue over to the recently established United Nations. The result was Resolution 181, a plan to partition Palestine into Independent Arab and Jewish States, the Jewish state was to receive around 56% of the land area of Mandate Palestine, encompassing 82% of the Jewish population, though it would be separated from Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by most of the Jewish population, the result was 33 to 13 in favour of the resolution, with 10 abstentions. Resolution 181, PART I, Future constitution and government of Palestine, TERMINATION OF MANDATE, PARTITION AND INDEPENDENCE, Clause 3 provides, Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. Shall come into existence in Palestine two months after the evacuation of the forces of the mandatory Power has been completed. The first draft of the declaration was made by Zvi Berenson, a revised second draft was made by three lawyers, A. Beham, A. Hintzheimer and Z. E. Baker, and was framed by a committee including David Remez, Pinchas Rosen, Haim-Moshe Shapira, Moshe Sharett, a second committee meeting, which included David Ben-Gurion, Yehuda Leib Maimon, Sharett and Zisling produced the final text. On 12 May 1948, the Minhelet HaAm was convened to vote on declaring independence, three of the thirteen members were missing, with Yehuda Leib Maimon and Yitzhak Gruenbaum being blocked in besieged Jerusalem, while Yitzhak-Meir Levin was in the United States. The meeting started at 1,45 in the afternoon and ended after midnight, the decision was between accepting the American proposal for a truce, or declaring independence. The latter option was put to a vote, with six of the ten members present supporting it, For, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Peretz Bernstein, Haim-Moshe Shapira, Mordechai Bentov, against, Eliezer Kaplan, David Remez, Pinchas Rosen, Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit. Chaim Weizmann, chairman of the World Zionist Organization and soon to be the first President of Israel, endorsed the decision, after reportedly asking What are they waiting for, the idiots. The draft text was submitted for approval to a meeting of Moetzet HaAm at the JNF building in Tel Aviv on 14 May. The meeting started at 13,50 and ended at 15,00, an hour before the declaration was due to be made, during the process, there were two major debates, centering on the issues of borders and religion. On the border issue, the draft had declared that the borders would be that decided by the UN partition plan. While this was supported by Rosen and Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit, it was opposed by Ben-Gurion and Zisling, with Ben-Gurion stating, We accepted the UN Resolution and they are preparing to make war on us. If we defeat them and capture western Galilee or territory on both sides of the road to Jerusalem, these areas become part of the state

20.
Mapai
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The party was founded on 5 January 1930 by the merger of the Hapoel Hatzair founded by A. D. Gordon and the original Ahdut HaAvoda. It was also responsible for the founding of Hashomer and Haganah, by the early 1930s, David Ben-Gurion had taken over the party, and had become de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine. It was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1930 and 1940, Ben-Gurion became Prime Minister and formed a coalition with the United Religious Front, the Progressive Party, the Sephardim and Oriental Communities and the Democratic List of Nazareth. A notable piece of legislation enacted during Mapais first term in office was a law in 1949 which introduced compulsory schooling for all children between the ages of 5 to 14. In the second elections in 1951 Mapai increased its vote to 37. 3% despite the economic problems. However, he shocked the nation by resigning on 6 December 1953 in order to settle in the small Negev kibbutz of Sde Boker, the 1955 elections saw a drop in the partys support to 32. 2%, though still well ahead of the second-placed Herut. Later the Progressive Party was also added, in contrast to the previous one, the 1959 election saw a surge in support, as the party recorded its best electoral performance, taking 38. 2% of the vote and 47 seats. Firstly, Ben-Gurion resigned as head of the party citing personal reasons and he set up a new party, Rafi, taking with him seven other Mapai members. Secondly, the two major right-wing opposition parties, Herut and the Liberal Party had merged into Gahal and this meant by the end of the Knesset session, Mapai had only 34 seats to Gahals 27. The partys response to the strength of the opposition was to seek support from other parties with similar ideologies. The result was an alliance with Ahdut HaAvoda to form the Labor Alignment before the 1965 election, the new party won 36. 7% of the vote and 45 seats, and comfortably beat Gahal. On 23 January 1968 Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi merged into the Israeli Labor Party, 1930-1953 – David Ben-Gurion 1953-1955 – Moshe Sharett 1955-1963 – David Ben-Gurion 1963-1968 – Levi Eshkol Workers Party of Eretz Yisrael Knesset website

21.
Jewish Agency for Israel
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The Jewish Agency for Israel is the largest Jewish nonprofit organization in the world. Its mission is to inspire Jews throughout the world to connect with their people, heritage, and land, and empower them to build a thriving Jewish future and a strong Israel. It is best known as the organization responsible for the immigration and absorption of Jews. Since 1948, the Jewish Agency for Israel has been responsible for bringing 3 million immigrants to Israel, the Jewish Agency played a central role in the founding and the building of the State of Israel. David Ben Gurion was the Chairman of its Executive Committee from 1935 and he became Israels first Prime Minister. In the years before and after the creation of the State and it serves as the main link between Israel and Jewish communities around the world. For example, it conducts intensive Hebrew-language immersion programs in Israel, by law, the Jewish Agency is a para-statal organization but it does not receive core funding from the Israeli government. The Jewish Agency is funded by The Jewish Federations of North America, Keren Hayesod, major Jewish communities and federations, the dozens of programs it supports or operates benefit well over a million Israelis and Jews worldwide every year. In 2008, The Jewish Agency won the Israel Prize for its contribution to Israel. As of 2016, The Jewish Agency sponsors dozens of programs that connect Jews to Israel, the Agency organizes the programs into four different categories, Israel Experiences, Israel in Your Community, Jewish Social Action, and Aliyah. Some programs, According to its website, the Israel Experience programs bring young Jews from around the globe to Israel to get to know the country, Taglit-Birthright Israel provides ten-day educational trips to Israel for Jews ages 18 to 26 from around the world, completely free of charge. Onward Israel organizes 6-to-10-week professional internships in Israel for students and young professionals who have previously visited Israel on Taglit-Birthright or another group tour, participants come in groups, all from the same community or organization. Masa Israel Journey is an organization founded in 2004 by the Government of Israels Office of the Prime Minister, together with The Jewish Agency. It includes a portfolio of more than 200 programs in Israel for Jews aged 18–30, including programs, service programs. It sponsors over 10,000 participants per year, masa provides significant scholarships to participants, performs outreach, and operates alumni activities. Israel Tech Challenge is a partnership of The Jewish Agency with the National Cyber Bureau and it offers trips to Israel of varying lengths for students and young professionals with knowledge in the field of computer science and programming. The programs offer visits with Israeli hi-tech professionals and academics, along with experience or training in coding and it was founded in 1946 by the World Zionist Organization. As of 2013, it had 12,000 alumni from South America, the United States, South Africa, Australia, North Africa, naale allows Jewish teenagers from the diaspora to study in Israel and earn a high school diploma

22.
Israeli legislative election, 1949
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Elections for the Constituent Assembly were held in newly independent Israel on 25 January 1949. Two days after its first meeting on 14 February 1949, legislators voted to change the name of the body to the Knesset and it is known today as the First Knesset. During the establishment of the state of Israel in May 1948, Israels national institutions were established and these bodies were not elected bodies in the pure sense, and their members originated from the management of the Jewish agency and from the management of the Jewish National Council. However, the elections were not held before the date due to the War of Independence. The elections were held on 25 January 1949. These were the first elections held in Israel, and as such they demanded special preparations, on 5 November 1948 the Provisional State Council decided that the Constituent Assembly would consist of 120 members. On 8 November 1948 a population census was held which was used in part for the preparations of the voters guide. For the purpose of the census the entire country was under curfew for seven hours, from five in the afternoon, another issue was the issue of the Electoral System. A thousand polling stations were prepared across the country, according to census, the number of eligible voters consisted of half a million people. On 19 May 1948, the Provisional Assembly confirmed Hebrew and Arabic as the languages of Israel. The Constituent Assembly convened in February 1949, the first government was formed on 8 March 1949 with David Ben-Gurion as Prime Minister. His Mapai party formed a coalition with the United Religious Front, the Progressive Party, the Sephardim and Oriental Communities and the Democratic List of Nazareth, yosef Sprinzak of Mapai was appointed as the speaker. On 16 February 1949, the First Knesset elected Chaim Weizmann as the first President of Israel and it also passed an educational law in 1949 which introduced compulsory schooling for all children between the ages of 5 to 14. On 5 July 1950, it passed the Law of Return, yaakov Geri was appointed Minister of Trade and Industry despite not being a Member of the Knesset. There was also a new Deputy Minister in the Transportation ministry, members of the first Knesset Elections in Israel Historical overview of the First Knesset Knesset website Factional and Government Make-Up of the First Knesset Knesset website

23.
Kibbutz
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A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania, today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism, in recent decades, some kibbutzim have been privatized and changes have been made in the communal lifestyle. A member of a kibbutz is called a kibbutznik, in 2010, there were 270 kibbutzim in Israel. Their factories and farms account for 9% of Israels industrial output, worth US$8 billion, some Kibbutzim had also developed substantial high-tech and military industries. For example, in 2010, Kibbutz Sasa, containing some 200 members, the kibbutzim were founded by members of the Bilu movement who emigrated to Palestine. The first kibbutz was Degania Alef, founded in 1909, joseph Baratz, one of the pioneers of the kibbutz movement, wrote a book about his experiences. We were happy enough working on the land, but we knew more and more certainly that the ways of the old settlements were not for us. This was not the way we hoped to settle the old way with Jews on top and Arabs working for them, anyway, we thought that there shouldnt be employers. There must be a better way, though Baratz and others wanted to farm the land themselves, becoming independent farmers was not a realistic option in 1909. Ottoman Palestine was a harsh environment, the Galilee was swampy, the Judaean Mountains rocky, and the south of the country, the Negev, was a desert. To make things more challenging, most of the settlers had no farming experience. The sanitary conditions were also poor, malaria, typhus and cholera were rampant. Bedouins would raid farms and settled areas, sabotage of irrigation canals and burning of crops were also common. Living collectively was simply the most logical way to be secure in an unwelcoming land, finally, the land had been purchased by the greater Jewish community. From around the world, Jews dropped coins into Jewish National Fund Blue Boxes for land purchases in Palestine, in 1909, Baratz, nine other men, and two women established themselves at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee near the Arab village of Umm Juni/Juniya. These teenagers had hitherto worked as day laborers converting wetlands for human development, as masons and their dream was now to work for themselves, building up the land. They called their community Kvutzat Degania, now Degania Alef, the founders of Degania endured backbreaking labor, The body is crushed, the legs fail, the head hurts, the sun burns and weakens, wrote one of the pioneers

24.
Sde Boker
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Sde Boker is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israels first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, in 2015 it had a population of 440. A large agricultural farm or small village existed here in the early Islamic period, remains of dozens of structures exist, including a mosque near which hundreds of Arabic inscriptions were found. The modern kibbutz was established on 15 May 1952, in 1953 Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigned from office and moved to the kibbutz. Although he returned to politics in 1955, he continued to live in the kibbutz until his death in 1973, Ben-Gurion moved to the kibbutz due to his vision of cultivating the Negev desert and building up its surrounding towns such as Yeruham and Dimona. He believed that eventually the Negev would be home to many Jews who would move to Israel and his home was later turned into a museum. In his official writings Ben-Gurion often mused about his efforts at rejuvenating the Negev and this is a vital element of our renaissance in Israel. For it is in mastering nature that man learns to control himself and it is in this sense, more practical than mystic, that I define our Redemption on this land. Israel must continue to cultivate its nationality and to represent the Jewish people without renouncing its glorious past and it must earn this—which is no small task—a right that can only be acquired in the desert. For we planted each tree in place and watered them with the water we provided at the cost of numerous efforts. Why does a mother love her children so, why does the Jew feel an affinity with Israel. Because everything here must still be accomplished and it depends only on him to participate in this privileged act of creation. The trees at Sde Boker speak to me differently than do the trees planted elsewhere. Not only because I participated in their planting and in their maintenance, but also because they are a gift of man to nature and it is also well known for its Bedouin tents. In 2014, it was host to the Midburn festival, Sde Boker, Discover Israel, Go Israel

25.
Moshe Sharett
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Moshe Sharett was the second Prime Minister of Israel, serving for a little under two years between David Ben-Gurions two terms. He continued as Foreign Minister in the Mapai government, Sharett steered the government through a turbulent period, was an experienced diplomat, with a liberal policy, a conciliatory approach, and a modernising attitude to the West. The renewed war with the Arabs split the socialist Left commencing another period of instability, born in Kherson in the Russian Empire, Sharett emigrated to Ottoman Palestine as a child in 1906. In 1910 his family moved to Jaffa, then one of the founding families of Tel Aviv. He graduated from the first class of the Herzliya Hebrew High School and he then went off to Constantinople to study law at Istanbul University, the same university at which Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and David Ben-Gurion studied. However, his time there was cut due to the outbreak of World War I. He served a commission as First Lieutenant in the Ottoman Army, after the war, he worked as an Arab affairs and land purchase agent for the Assembly of Representatives of the Yishuv. He also became a member of Ahdut HaAvoda, and later of Mapai, in 1922 he went to the London School of Economics, and while there he actively edited the Workers of Zion. One of the people he met while in London was Chaim Weizmann and he then worked on the Davar newspaper from 1925 until 1931. In 1931, after returning to Mandatory Palestine, he became the secretary of the Jewish Agencys political department, after the assassination of Haim Arlosoroff in 1933 he became its head. During the war via his wife Zipporah, Sharett became embroiled in the question of emigration of refugee Jews stranded in Europe, some Polish refugees, children with and without parents were deported to Tehran with the Soviets agreement. The Tehran Children became a cause celebre in the Yishuv, Sharett flew to Tehran to negotiate their return to Palestine. The success of negotiations and others was a hallmark of Sharetts more cerebral approach to practical problems. He met with Tel Aviv bound Hungarian Jewish refugee representative Joel Brand, Yishuv leadership mistrusted Brand, and the British thought him a criminal. Sharetts response was to hand the self-appointed liberator over to the British authorities, like Weizmann, whom he admired, Sharett was a principled Zionist, an implacable opponent of fascism, but a practical realist prepared to co-operate fully with the Mandate. Sharett, as Ben-Gurions ally, denounced Irguns assassination squads on December 13,1947, atrocities escalated, mainly upon Jews, but with reciprocal revenge killings, by the end of the war 6000 Palestinian Jews, 1% of the population, had died. Sharett held the foreign policy post under the Agency until the formation of Israel in 1948, the main culprits on the Jewish side were Palmach, whose brigade, with help from the Haganah patrolled the Negev, saving it for Israel. Sharett was one of the signatories of Israels Declaration of Independence, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he was Foreign Minister for the Provisional Government of Israel

26.
Rafi (political party)
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Rafi was a Center-left political party in Israel, founded by former Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion in 1965. In 1968 it was one of three parties merged to form the Israeli Labor Party. The split had two causes, the first was the disagreements within Mapai over the Lavon Affair, Ben-Gurion did not agree to declaring Lavon innocent without judicial investigation committee. The second was the formation of the Labor Alignment by an alliance of Mapai, the new partys establishment, a merger of two of the largest left-wing parties, was intended to delay planned reforms to the electoral system that were important to Ben-Gurion. The party ran for the 1965 elections on a platform of changing the electoral systems, although Ben-Gurion hoped to displace the Labour Alignment as the leading left-wing party in the Knesset, Rafi won only 10 seats. In early 1967, Rafi and Menachem Begins Gahal party discussed the idea of forming a coalition to challenge Mapai. On 23 January 1968 the party merged with Ahdut HaAvoda and Mapai to form the Israeli Labor Party and ceased to exist as an independent entity. However, Ben-Gurion could not reconcile himself to the merger with his foes, prior to the 1969 elections, he founded another new party, the National List. However, after Ben-Gurion retired from politics in 1970 it fell apart, eventually merging with the Free Centre, the name Rafi was briefly resurrected during the ninth Knesset and again during the tenth Knesset when breakaways from Likud named themselves Rafi – National List. The party was later renamed Ometz

27.
Levi Eshkol
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Levi Eshkol served as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a heart attack in 1969. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office, Levi Eshkol was born in the shtetl of Oratov, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire. His mother came from a Hasidic background and his father came from a family of Mitnagdim, Eshkol received a traditional Jewish education in Vilna. In 1914, he left for Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire and he was a leading member of the Judea Workers Union in 1915–17. During World War I, he volunteered with the Jewish Legion and he played an important part in the Suez Canal Crisis 1956 by financing military outposts and was accused of funding the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt helping Israel survive through the time. Eshkol joined Kibbutz Degania Bet and married Rivka Maharshek and they had a daughter, Noa, born in 1924 and were divorced in 1927. Eshkol married his second wife Elisheva Kaplan in 1928, with whom he had three daughters, Dvora, Ofra, and Tama and his second wife died in 1959. In 1964 he married Miriam, a librarian at the Library of the Knesset 35 years his junior, from 1940 to 1948 Eshkol was a member of the Haganah high command. He engaged in arms acquisition for the Haganah prior to and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, after Israels victory, Eshkol was appointed Director-General of the Ministry of Defense, serving from 1950 to 1951. Eshkol was elected to the Knesset in 1951 as a member of Mapai party and he served as Minister of Agriculture until 1952, when he was appointed Finance Minister following the death of Eliezer Kaplan. He held that position for the following 12 years, during his term as Finance Minister, Eshkol established himself as a prominent figure in Mapais leadership, and was designated by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion as his successor. When Ben-Gurion resigned in June 1963, Eshkol was elected party chairman with a broad consensus, Ben-Gurion failed to challenge Eshkols leadership and split from Mapai with a few of his young protégés to form Rafi in June 1965. In the meantime, Mapai merged with Ahdut HaAvoda to form the Alignment with Eshkol as its head, Rafi was defeated by the Alignment in the elections held in November 1965, establishing Eshkol as the countrys indisputable leader. Eshkol formed Israels twelfth government in 1963 and his first term in office saw continuous economic growth, epitomized by the opening of the National Water Carrier system in 1964. His and Finance Minister Pinchas Sapirs subsequent soft landing of the economy by means of recessive policies precipitated a drastic slump in economic activity. Israels centralized planned economy lacked the mechanisms to self-regulate the slowdown, upon being elected into office, Levi Eshkol fulfilled Zeev Jabotinskys wish and brought his body and that of his wife to Israel where they were buried in Mount Herzl Cemetery. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister invited on a state visit to the United States in May 1964. Israels overwhelming victory allowed Eshkol to remain Prime Minister despite never receiving recognition for his role in achieving it, the March 10,1965, MOU, variously interpreted since, said Israel would not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East

28.
Alignment (Israel)
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The Alignment is the name of two political alliances in Israel. Each of these Alignment parties later merged into what is now the Israeli Labor Party, the first Alignment was a 1965 alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda. The two parties continued to exist independently, but submitted joint electoral lists, often called the Labor Alignment, the alliance lasted three years until a merger with Rafi in 1968 created the unitary Israeli Labor Party. The following year the Labor Party formed an alliance with Mapam, the two constituent parties remained separate, but with combined electoral campaigns and candidate lists. The second version of the Alignment lasted for more than two decades, at its formation in 1969, the second Alignment had 63 of 120 Knesset seats, the only time a parliamentary group in Israel has ever held a parliamentary majority. Although their majority was lost in the 1969 elections, the 56 seats won by the Alignment remains the highest seat total won in an Israeli election. The first incarnation of the Alignment, fully named the HaMaarakh LeAhdut Poalei Eretz Yisrael, was an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda formed to contest the 1965 Knesset elections. Its formation was in response to the merger of the two major right-wing parties in Israel, Herut and the Liberal Party to form Gahal, and to try to preserve the lefts hegemony in Israeli politics. On 23 January 1968, Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda merged with Rafi to form the Israeli Labor Party, Rafi leader David Ben-Gurion refused to join the Labor Party, and left Rafi before the merger. He formed a new party, the National List, on 28 January 1969 the Labor Party entered into an alliance with Mapam. The Alignment name was still well-known, and was re-used for the new alliance, at the time, the Labor Party held 55 seats, and Mapam eight, giving the new Alignment a majority of 63 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The countrys success in the Six-Day War helped the partys popularity, although it lost its majority, the 46. 2% of the vote and 56 seats was the best electoral performance in Israeli political history. During the Knesset session, the party gained one seat as Meir Avizohar defected from the National List, the seventh Knesset also covered the event that played a major part in the partys downfall. On 6 October 1973, as Israelis were observing Yom Kippur, although Israel later recovered the ground initially lost, the war was generally considered to be a failure, and the government faced significant criticism. The Agranat Commission was set up to examine the circumstances that led to the war, before the Commission could publish its results, an election was held. Anger at the government was not significantly noticeable, as the Alignment still won 39. 6% of the vote and 51 seats, more significantly, the new major right-wing party, Likud, won 39 seats, and was now breathing down the Alignments neck. Meir formed a coalition with the National Religious Party and the Independent Liberals, however, ten days after the Agranat Commission published its findings on 1 April 1974, Meir resigned, despite the report clearing her and her Defence Minister, Moshe Dayan of all responsibility. Yitzhak Rabin took over the Labor party, beating Shimon Peres in a leadership contest and this battle led to a long-term falling out between the two, after Rabin described Peres as an indefatigable intriguer in his autobiography

29.
Mapam
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Mapam was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party, Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the non-kibbutz-based Socialist League, and the left-Labor Zionist Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook, and represented the left-wing Kibbutz Artzi movement and it also took over the Hashomer Hatzair-affiliated newspaper Al HaMishmar. In the elections for the first Knesset, Mapam received 19 seats, as the party did not allow non-Jews to be members at the time, it had also set up an Arab list, the Popular Arab Bloc, to contest the elections. However, the Arab list failed to cross the 1% electoral threshold, the partys pro-Soviet views did not endear them to Ben-Gurion, and they were not included in the governing coalition. During the session they gained one seat when Eliezer Preminger joined after leaving Maki and then setting up his own party, in the 1951 elections the party dropped to 15 seats and again were not included in the coalition. However, they did become the first Zionist party to have an Israeli Arab, Rostam Bastuni, from Mapams point of view, the most important event of the second Knesset were the Prague Trials of 1953, which severely shook the partys faith in the Soviet Union. The show trials in which mostly Jewish leaders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia were purged, falsely implicated Mapams envoy in Prague, Mordechai Oren and this created a split in the party. Avraham Berman, Rostam Bastuni and Moshe Sneh left the party and set up the Left Faction, while Hannah Lamdan, although Bastuni later returned to the party, Berman and Sneh eventually joined Maki and Lamdan and Livschitz joined Mapai. Four other party members left to recreate Ahdut HaAvoda, though the Knesset speaker did not recognise the group as an independent party during the Knesset session. Although it had reduced to seven seats by the end of the second Knesset. Having effectively renounced the Soviet Union, Mapam were now included in Ben-Gurions coalitions for both the seventh and eighth governments, in the 1959 elections the party retained its nine seats, and despite their previous differences, were included in Ben-Gurions coalition. In the 1961 elections they won nine seats, but this time were not members of the governing coalition. The 1965 elections saw the party lose a seat, dropping to eight mandates, in January 1969 the party formed an alliance with the Israeli Labor Party, which was named the Alignment. The Alignment went on to win the number of seats in the 1969 elections. At the time, Soviet commentators described Mapam as one of the most reactionary ones among the left-socialist parties, Mapam briefly broke away from the Alignment during the eighth Knesset, but returned shortly after. However, in the 1988 elections the party won three seats. In 1995 the partys newspaper, Al HaMishmar, ceased publication, in 1997 the merger into Meretz with Ratz and part of Shinui was formalised and Mapam ceased to exist

30.
Yigal Allon
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Yigal Allon was an Israeli politician, a commander of the Palmach, and a general in the IDF. He served as one of the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda party and the Israeli Labor party and he was a Knesset member and government minister from the third Knesset to the ninth inclusive. Yigal Peikowitz was born in Kfar Tavor and his father immigrated to Palestine in 1890. After graduating from Kadoorie Agricultural High School in 1937, Allon became one of the founders of Kibbutz Ginosar and their eldest daughter Nurit, was on the Autism spectrum. In 1950-1952, he studied philosophy and history at St Antonys College, Allon died of heart failure in Afula on 29 February 1980. He was buried on the shore of Sea of Galilee in the cemetery of Kibbutz Ginosar in the Northern District, the funeral was attended by tens of thousands of mourners, with condolences extended by many world leaders, including Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. Allon joined Haganah in 1931 and went on to commanded a field unit, during this period he participated in several operations of the Special Night Squads, under the command of Orde Charles Wingate and H. E. N. Bredin. In 1941 he became one of the members of the Palmach. In 1941 and 1942, he was a scout with the British forces who fought in Syria, in 1945, he became Commander in Chief of the Palmach. On 22 June 1948, at the climax of David Ben-Gurions confrontation with the Irgun over the distribution of weapons from the Altalena, Allon commanded the troops ordered to shell the vessel. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Allon led several of the operations on all three fronts, including Yiftach in the Galilee, Danny in the Centre, Yoav. His last major roles as commander were in October and December 1948, Operation Yoav towards the Hebron Hills. As Operational Commander of the Southern Command he was responsible for security along the borders with Egypt, on 4 June 1949 he declared a 8 kilometres wide closed military zone along the border. On 18 October 1949, while he was in a visit in Paris. Most of his Staff Officers resigned in protest and he retired from active service in 1950. In January 1948, Allon helped form the left-wing Mapam party, in December 1948, Mapam co-leader Meir Yaari criticized Allons use of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees to achieve strategic goals. After ending his career, Allon embarked on a public political career. He became a prominent leader in Ahdut HaAvoda, which had split from Mapam in 1954, and was first elected to the Knesset in 1955, Allon served as the Minister of Labour from 1961–68

31.
Golda Meir
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Golda Meir was an Israeli teacher, kibbutznik, stateswoman and politician and the fourth elected Prime Minister of Israel. Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel on March 17,1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister. Former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion used to call Meir the best man in the government, she was portrayed as the strong-willed, straight-talking. Meir resigned as minister in 1974, the year following the Yom Kippur War. She died in 1978 of lymphoma, Golda Mabovitch was born on May 3,1898, in Kiev, Russian Empire, present-day Ukraine, to Blume Neiditch and Moshe Mabovitch, a carpenter. Meir wrote in her autobiography that her earliest memories were of her father boarding up the front door in response to rumours of an imminent pogrom and she had two sisters, Sheyna and Tzipke, as well as five other siblings who died in childhood. She was especially close to Sheyna, Moshe Mabovitch left to find work in New York City in 1903. In his absence, the rest of the moved to Pinsk to join her mothers family. In 1905, Moshe moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in search of higher-paying work, the following year, he had saved up enough money to bring his family to the United States. Blume ran a store on Milwaukees north side, where by age eight Golda had been put in charge of watching the store when her mother went to the market for supplies. Golda attended the Fourth Street Grade School from 1906 to 1912, a leader early on, she organised a fund raiser to pay for her classmates textbooks. After forming the American Young Sisters Society, she rented a hall and she went on to graduate as valedictorian of her class. At 14, she studied at North Division High School and worked part-time and her mother wanted her to leave school and marry, but she demurred. She bought a ticket to Denver, Colorado, and went to live with her married sister. The Korngolds held intellectual evenings at their home, where Meir was exposed to debates on Zionism, literature, womens suffrage, trade unionism, in her autobiography, she wrote, To the extent that my own future convictions were shaped and given form. Those talk-filled nights in Denver played a considerable role, in Denver, she also met Morris Meyerson, a sign painter, whom she later married on December 24,1917. In 1913 she returned to North Division High, graduating in 1915, while there, she became an active member of Young Poale Zion, which later became Habonim, the Labor Zionist youth movement. She spoke at meetings, embraced Socialist Zionism and hosted visitors from Palestine

32.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike
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Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, commonly known as Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was a Sri Lankan stateswoman and politician and the modern worlds first female head of government. She served as Prime Minister of Ceylon and Sri Lanka three times, 1960–65, 1970–77 and 1994–2000, and was a leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Born to Barnes Ratwatte, Dissawa of Sabaragamuwa and Rosalind Mahawelatenne Kumarihamy of Mahawelatenne Walauwa, Balangoda, she was the eldest of six, with four brothers and her father was member of the State Council and the Senate of Ceylon. Her youngest sister Patsy Ratwatte was married to Colonel Edward James Divitotawela, Bandaranaike was educated at St Bridgets Convent, Colombo, but was a practising Buddhist. In 1940 she married Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, a member of the State council and son of Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike and they had three children, Sunethra, Chandrika, and Anura. Her husband Solomon was a member of the United National Party in 1946 and was elected to the House of Representatives in the first elections of the Dominion of Ceylon in 1947. Breaking away from the UNP he went on to form the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, a coalition led by the SLFP won a majority in the House of Representatives in 1956 general election and Solomon became Prime Minister. After initiating much change on socialist and nationalistic lines, he had his tenure cut short three years later when he was assassinated by a Buddhist monk on 26 September 1959. The assassination created a vacuum, due to Solomons likely successor C. P. de Silva being gravely ill. Wijeyananda Dahanayake, Minister of Education, was appointed caretaker Prime Minister, turmoil in the government followed as Dahanayake sacked and appointed ministers. This led to a defeat of the SLFP in the March 1960 elections, during this time Sirimavo was brought forward as legitimate successor to her husbands party leadership and she entered politics. In 1960 M. P. de Zoysa Jnr stepped down from his seat in the Senate paving the way for Sirimavo to be appointed as a member of the Senate from the SLFP. She led her party to win the July 1960 elections on the pledge to continue her husbands policies, notably the Sinhala Only Act, on 21 July 1960, as a Senator she became prime minister, thus becoming the first female prime minister in the world. Known to her fellow Sri Lankans as Mrs. B, she could skillfully use appeals to the electorates as she promised to continue her husbands work. Bandaranaike was on a ride from the moment she took office. Within a year of her 1960 election victory she declared a state of emergency and this they considered a highly discriminatory act and an attempt to deny Tamils access to all official posts and the law. This led to an increase in Tamil militancy which escalated under succeeding administrations, further problems arose with the state takeover of foreign businesses, particularly petroleum companies, which upset the United States and Britain, they ended aid to Sri Lanka. As a result, Bandaranaike moved her country closer to China, at home, she crushed an attempted military coup by Christian officers in 1962 and appointed her uncle William Gopallawa Governor-General of Ceylon

33.
Indira Gandhi
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Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician and central figure of the Indian National Congress party, and to date the only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Indias first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi. She served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, Gandhi served as her fathers personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as prime minister between 1947 and 1964. She was elected Congress President in 1959, upon her fathers death in 1964, Gandhi refused to enter the Congress party leadership contest and instead chose to become a cabinet minister in the government led by Lal Bahadur Shastri. As the Prime Minister of India, Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness, Gandhi also presided over a controversial state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 during which she ruled by decree. Akin to Mahatma Gandhis fate, she was assassinated by nationalists in 1984. The assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, were both killed, in 1999, Indira was named Woman of the Millennium in a poll organised by the BBC. Indira Gandhi was born as Indira Nehru in a Kashmiri Pandit family on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad and her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a leading figure in Indias political struggle for independence from British rule, and became the first Prime Minister of the Union of India. She was the child, and grew up with her mother, Kamala Nehru, at the Anand Bhavan. She had a lonely and unhappy childhood and her father was often away, directing political activities or incarcerated, while her mother was frequently bed-ridden with illness, and later suffered an early death from tuberculosis. She had limited contact with her father, mostly through letters, Indira was mostly taught at home by tutors, and intermittently attended school until matriculation in 1934. It was during her interview that Rabindranath Tagore named her Priyadarshini, a year later, however, she had to leave university to attend to her ailing mother in Europe. While there, it was decided that Indira would continue her education at the University of Oxford, after her mother died, she briefly attended the Badminton School before enrolling at Somerville College in 1937 to study history. Indira had to take the entrance examination twice, having failed at her first attempt with a performance in Latin. At Oxford, she did well in history, political science and economics and she did, however, have an active part within the student life of the university, such as the Oxford Majlis Asian Society. During her time in Europe, Indira was plagued with ill-health and was attended by doctors. She had to make repeated trips to Switzerland to recover, disrupting her studies and she was being treated there in 1940, when the Nazi armies rapidly conquered Europe. Gandhi tried to return to England through Portugal but was stranded for nearly two months

34.
Yom Kippur War
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The fighting mostly took place in the Sinai and the Golan Heights, territories that had been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat wanted also to reopen the Suez Canal, neither specifically planned to destroy Israel, although the Israeli leaders could not be sure of that. Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed ceasefire lines to enter the Sinai Peninsula, both the United States and the Soviet Union initiated massive resupply efforts to their respective allies during the war, and this led to a near-confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers. The war began with a massive and successful Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal, after crossing the cease-fire lines, Egyptian forces advanced virtually unopposed into the Sinai Peninsula. After three days, Israel had mobilized most of its forces and halted the Egyptian offensive, resulting in a military stalemate, the Syrians coordinated their attack on the Golan Heights to coincide with the Egyptian offensive and initially made threatening gains into Israeli-held territory. Within three days, however, Israeli forces had pushed the Syrians back to the ceasefire lines. The Israel Defense Forces then launched a four-day counter-offensive deep into Syria, within a week, Israeli artillery began to shell the outskirts of Damascus. He therefore ordered the Egyptians to go back on the offensive, on October 22 a United Nations–brokered ceasefire quickly unraveled, with each side blaming the other for the breach. By October 24, the Israelis had improved their positions considerably and completed their encirclement of Egypts Third Army and this development led to tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. As a result, a ceasefire was imposed cooperatively on October 25 to end the war. These changes paved the way for the subsequent peace process, the 1978 Camp David Accords that followed led to the return of the Sinai to Egypt and normalized relations—the first peaceful recognition of Israel by an Arab country. Egypt continued its drift away from the Soviet Union and left the Soviet sphere of influence entirely, the war was part of the Arab–Israeli conflict, an ongoing dispute that included many battles and wars since 1948, when the state of Israel was formed. During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel had captured Egypts Sinai Peninsula, roughly half of Syrias Golan Heights, and the territories of the West Bank which had been held by Jordan since 1948. On June 19,1967, shortly after the Six-Day War, the Israeli government voted to return the Sinai to Egypt, the Arab position, as it emerged in September 1967 at the Khartoum Arab Summit, was to reject any peaceful settlement with the state of Israel. Prior to that, King Hussein of Jordan had stated that he could not rule out a possibility of a real, permanent peace between Israel and the Arab states. Armed hostilities continued on a limited scale after the Six-Day War and escalated into the War of Attrition, a ceasefire was signed in August 1970. President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt died in September 1970 and he was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. A peace initiative led by both Sadat and UN intermediary Gunnar Jarring was tabled in 1971 and it resembled a proposal independently made by Moshe Dayan

35.
Yitzhak Rabin
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Yitzhak Rabin was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995, Rabin was born in Jerusalem to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants and was raised in a Labor Zionist household. He learned agriculture in school and excelled as a student and he led a 27-year career as a soldier. As a teenager he joined the Palmach, the force of the Yishuv. He eventually rose through its ranks to become its chief of operations during Israels War of Independence and he joined the newly formed Israel Defense Forces in late 1948 and continued to rise as a promising officer. He helped shape the training doctrine of the IDF in the early 1950s and he was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1964 and oversaw Israels victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Rabin served as Israels ambassador to the United States from 1968 to 1973 and he was appointed Prime Minister of Israel in 1974, after the resignation of Golda Meir. In his first term, Rabin signed the Sinai Interim Agreement and he resigned in 1977 in the wake of a financial scandal. Rabin was Israels minister of defense for much of the 1980s, in 1992, Rabin was re-elected as prime minister on a platform embracing the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. He signed several agreements with the Palestinian leadership as part of the Oslo Accords. In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with long-time political rival Shimon Peres, Rabin also signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. In November 1995, he was assassinated by an extremist named Yigal Amir, Rabin was the first native-born prime minister of Israel, the only prime minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office after Levi Eshkol. Rabin has become a symbol of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, Nehemiah Rubitzov was born in the shtetl Sydorovychi near Ivankiv in the southern Pale of Settlement. His father Menachem died when he was a boy, and Nehemiah worked to support his family from an early age, at the age of 18, he emigrated to the United States, where he joined the Poale Zion party and changed his surname to Rabin. In 1917, Nehemiah went to Mandatory Palestine with a group of volunteers from the Jewish Legion, yitzhaks mother, Rosa Cohen, was born in 1890 in Mogilev in Belarus. Her father, a rabbi, opposed the Zionist movement and sent Rosa to a Christian high school for girls in Gomel, early on, Rosa took an interest in political and social causes. In 1919, she traveled to the region on the steamship Ruslan, after working on a kibbutz on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, she moved to Jerusalem. Rabins parents met in Jerusalem during the 1920 Nebi Musa riots and they moved to Tel Avivs Chlenov Street near Jaffa in 1923

36.
Leah Rabin
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Leah Rabin was the widow of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995. Leah was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany, to a family of Russian-born parents. Immediately after Adolf Hitlers election as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and her father had bought a piece of property near Binyamina on his first trip to the area in 1927. She met her husband, Yitzhak Rabin, at school. They married in 1948, the year of Israels independence, Yitzhak became Prime Minister in 1974 following Golda Meirs resignation, but in 1977 a US Dollar bank account held by Leah was exposed by Haaretz journalist Dan Margalit. As a result, her husband decided to take responsibility, resigned from office and this came to be known as the Dollar Account affair. Leah supported the efforts of her husband in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She wrote a book about her memories of her husband, which was released in 1997, under the name Rabin, Our Life and she supported Shimon Peres in the elections of 1996, calling people to vote for him so that her husbands death would not be in vain. She also expressed her disappointment after he lost the elections to Benjamin Netanyahu, in the election of 1999 she supported Ehud Barak. However, during Baraks term as minister she changed her opinions about him. She was especially disturbed by the fact that he was negotiating a compromise in Jerusalem. The couples daughter, Dalia was later a Knesset member for the Centre Party, New Way and the Labour Party, serving as Deputy Minister of Defense

37.
Menachem Begin
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Menachem Begin was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Israel, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun and he proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he targeted the British in Palestine, later, the Irgun fought the Arabs during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. He remained in opposition in the eight elections, but became more acceptable to the political center. His 1977 electoral victory and premiership ended three decades of Labor Party political dominance, Begin’s most significant achievement as Prime Minister was the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, for which he and Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Prize for Peace. In the wake of the Camp David Accords, the Israel Defense Forces withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, later, Begin’s government promoted the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Begin authorized the bombing of the Osirak nuclear plant in Iraq, as IDF forces remained mired in Lebanon and the economy suffered from hyperinflation, the public pressure on Begin mounted. Depressed by the death of his wife Aliza in November 1982, he withdrew from public life. He was the youngest of three children, on his mothers side he was descended from distinguished rabbis. His father, a merchant, was a community leader, a passionate Zionist. The midwife who attended his birth was the grandmother of Ariel Sharon, after a year of a traditional cheder education Begin started studying at a Tachkemoni school, associated with the religious Zionist movement. In his childhood, Begin, like most Jewish children in his town, was a member of the Zionist scouts movement Hashomer Hatzair and he was a member of Hashomer Hatzair until the age of 13, and at 16, he joined Betar. At 14, he was sent to a Polish government school, Begin studied law at the University of Warsaw, where he learned the oratory and rhetoric skills that became his trademark as a politician, and viewed as demagogy by his critics. During his studies, he organized a group of Jewish students to counter harassment by anti-Semites on campus. He graduated in 1935, but never practiced law, at this time, he became a disciple of Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky, the founder of the nationalist Revisionist Zionism movement and its Betar youth wing. His rise within Betar was rapid, At 22, he shared the dais with his mentor at the Betar World Congress in Kraków, the pre-war Polish government actively supported Zionist youth and paramilitary movements. Begins leadership qualities were quickly recognised, in 1937 he was the active head of Betar in Czechoslovakia and became head of the largest branch, that of Poland. As head of Betars Polish branch, Begin traveled among regional branches to encourage supporters, to save money, he stayed at the homes of Betar members

38.
Right-wing politics
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Hierarchy and inequality may be viewed as natural results of traditional social differences or the competition in market economies. The term right-wing can generally refer to the conservative or reactionary section of a party or system. The original Right in France was formed as a reaction against the Left, and comprised those politicians supporting hierarchy, tradition, the use of the expression la droite became prominent in France after the restoration of the monarchy in 1815, when it was applied to the Ultra-royalists. The people of English-speaking countries did not apply the terms right, from the 1830s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from nobility and aristocracy towards capitalism. This general economic shift toward capitalism affected centre right movements such as the British Conservative Party, in the United States, the Right includes both economic and social conservatives. The nobility, members of the Second Estate, generally sat to the right, in the successive legislative assemblies, monarchists who supported the Ancien Régime were commonly referred to as rightists because they sat on the right side. A major figure on the right was Joseph de Maistre, who argued for a form of conservatism. Throughout the 19th century, the line dividing Left and Right in France was between supporters of the republic and supporters of the monarchy. In British politics, the right and left came into common use for the first time in the late 1930s in debates over the Spanish Civil War. The meaning of right-wing varies across societies, historical epochs, and political systems, according to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics, in liberal democracies, the political Right opposes socialism and social democracy. Right-wing parties include conservatives, Christian democrats, classical liberals, nationalists and, on the far Right, Roger Eatwell and Neal OSullivan divide the Right into five types, reactionary, moderate, radical, extreme, and new. Chip Berlet argues that each of these styles of thought are responses to the left, including liberalism and socialism, the reactionary right looks toward the past and is aristocratic, religious and authoritarian. Often the moderate right promotes nationalism and social welfare policies, radical right is a term developed after World War II to describe groups and ideologies such as McCarthyism, the John Birch Society, Thatcherism, and the Republikaner Party. Eatwell stresses that use has major typological problems and that the term has also been applied to clearly democratic developments. The radical right includes right-wing populism and various other subtypes, Eatwell argues that the extreme right has four traits, 1) anti-democracy, 2) nationalism, 3) racism, and 4) the strong state. The New Right consists of the conservatives, who stress small government, free markets. Other authors make a distinction between the centre-right and the far right, parties of the centre-right generally support liberal democracy, capitalism, the market economy, private property rights, and a limited welfare state. They support conservatism and economic liberalism, and oppose socialism and communism, typical examples of leaders to whom the far right label is often applied are Francisco Franco in Spain and Augusto Pinochet in Chile

The Israeli Declaration of Independence, formally the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, was …

Image: Israel Declaration of Independence

The borders were not specified in the Declaration. On the day of its proclamation, Eliahu Epstein wrote to Harry S. Truman that the state had been proclaimed "within the frontiers approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution of November 29, 1947".

The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin took place on 4 November 1995 (12th of Marcheshvan, 5756 on the Hebrew calendar) at …

Site of the rally before the assassination: Kings of Israel Square (since renamed Rabin Square) with Tel Aviv's City Hall in the background during the day.

Yitzhak Rabin's family mourn at his funeral.

Yitzhak Rabin grave, December 1995.

The monument at the site of the assassination: Solomon ibn Gabirol Street between the Tel Aviv City Hall and Gan Ha'ir (in the back). The monument is composed of broken rocks, which represent the political earthquake that the assassination represents.